Saturday, May 23, 2009

Nothing particularly earth-shattering in the interview (though I had a dickens of a time trying to find it on my DVR). Did mention that he has spoken to former President Bush since inauguraton. Did mention the thing about the White House being good for their family life. And he mentioned that Michelle is probably selling a lot more magazines than he is.

I did read a headline somewhere that the President was "pushing" back against his "empathy" line about his Supreme Court nominee, only to see the President reinforce that very notion in this interview.

One of these days, I hope that C-SPAN, PBS (and ABC News for that matter) make little things like embeddable video possible. It'd make my job easier.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

At some point, punishment ends. So, before we get all outraged about Michael Vick getting out of jail, please take a moment to remember the story of Altanta Thrashers Dany Heatley:

On September 29, 2003, Heatley was seriously injured after he lost control of the Ferrari 360 Modena he was driving. The car struck a wall, splitting the car in half and ejecting him and his passenger, teammate Dan Snyder. Heatley suffered a broken jaw, a minor concussion, a bruised lung, bruised kidney, and tore three ligaments in his right knee; Snyder was critically injured with a skull fracture and died six days later on October 5 of sepsis. Heatley was charged with vehicular homicide; he pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide, driving too fast for conditions, failure to maintain a lane, and speeding. He admitted to drinking some prior to the incident, but his blood-alcohol content was below the legal limit. He was sentenced to three years probation, and the judge required the court to approve Heatley's vehicle, which could not have more than six cylinders and would not surpass 70mph (112km/h). Heatley avoided having to go to trial as part of a plea deal that dropped the first-degree charge of vehicular homicide.

Because of injuries he suffered from the car accident, Heatley's next season started in January 2004 and he appeared in only 31 games. A disappointing season ended with an early elimination in the race for a playoff spot and 25 points. During the last part of the season, the Thrashers and the Atlanta community, including Snyder's family, were largely supportive of him.

What this Blog is About

Fort McHenry defended Baltimore, Maryland (my home state) from the British Navy during the War of 1812. Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" while a prisoner on a British ship. The "rockets red glare" and "bombs bursting in air" were bursting over Fort McHenry. I've decided to use this blog as my own "Fort McHenry" for President Obama, using this space to occassionally defend and explain his actions.